Pike County 4-H Is Inclusive!  

     To make 4-H available to all youth, we have 4-H in every public school in the county.  This shows a great deal of support from leadership in the county and city school systems.  This makes the programs available to all youth regardless of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic information, age, or physical or mental disability.

     The Pike County 4-H Program has a goal of spending 400 hours of SNAP Education to youth in the county.   We have exceeded the 400 hours expected to teach youth about healthy eating and living.  Personally, I have presented health programs to 3,473 youth contacts.  Of this number, 21 are Asian, 38 are black, three are Ameican Indian, 61 indicated more than one race, and 31 are Hispanics.  The 4-H program assistants and I reached 5,787 youths (this includes duplicate visits) through these educational programs.

     During the Covid-19 Pandemic, 4-H Kids Kits were offered for families to pick up here at the Pike County Extension Office.  For those schools located remotely, (an hour drive from the office), we delivered kits to the schools to be included with the school pick-ups.  In all, 4,335 4 kits were utilized by families during this time. One of the kits included tiles for decorating; one dad, stated, “I am going to use the tiles my daughters made as a back-splash.”  Many thankful parents posted on the Pike County 4-H Facebook page.  One parent comment, “My son and I love working on them.”   While others stated, “Great idea during this time.  It helped us on a rainy quarantined day.”  

     4-H Clubs were began for four Functional Mental Disabled Units.  The clubs, made up of three high schools and one middle school, were formed to teach life skills to the challenged youth.   The Pike County 4-H Functionally Mental Developmental units taught youth practical living skills.   One youth stated, “I have never used a knife before.  I am going to show my mom how to cut vegetables.”  Another youth was non-verbal, he had never spoken a word during the time at school.  When the 4-H Assistant came into the classroom, he spoke her name and said “Hello”.   Roger, a recent high school graduate,  posted on Facebook, “I enjoyed 4-H learning how to make news things and cooking.”

Pike County 4-H is making the best better!